Grinderman – Grinderman 2
Best Album With a Wolf on It and Notable Award for Use of the Skeletal Remains of a Kennedy
What a dumb, dumb jerk I’ve been. All these years, I had heard of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and I just sort of dismissed it. “Goodness!” I’d say, “This seems to have people a-buzz but I am going to listen to Stone Temple Pilots anyway, it’s familiar and comforting like a terrible hamburger from Jack-in-the-Box.” Grinderman is indeed the new project from the Australian legend Nick Cave, and it shows that old people still can rock pretty good when they aren’t complaining about children being on their lawns or how their dentures keep falling out. The guitars are fuzzed out and grimy, just hows I likes em. Everything’s a bit skuzzball on this record, evidenced by the trashy living room scene with a rather annoyed wolf on the cover. It’s one of those images that really sums the contents of the album up in a nice little package. “Palaces of Montezuma” is one of the best tracks of the year. It’s a love ballad sort of, it’s ever so slightly creepy but still manages to be beautiful expression of desire, especially with the female harmonies during the chorus that float in as if on the breeze. Palaces also has the Line of the Year: “The spinal cord of JFK/wrapped around Marylin Monroe’s negligee/I give to you.” Isn’t that what every young lover wants? I’d be beside myself. “How did you manage to get this??” I’d say. This album also prompted my roommate, who was tripping at the time, to ask during the final track “Bellringer Blues” which has a strange reversed guitar sound that loops around and plays with the track in weird and unusual ways: “Does this song really sound like this??? This is awesome!!!” Yes, Nick Cave is awesome and I’m late to the party but at least here, picking half eaten hors d’oeuvres off the buffet. How can you resist a record that’s got a track on it called “Evil!!”? HUH?
Rating: The cerebral cortex of Barry Soetoro wrapped inside of Christina Hendricks’s enormous brassiere. I give to you.
